the Bard's Tavern

I’m trying to avoid spoilers, still, but it’s getting more and more challenging. Just last weekend I was talking to a friend who had already seen the movie the weekend before. They made a comment that they felt the movie had “pacing problems” as it took time to develop character when it probably should have been focused on action. That may not mean much to you, but I totally get it.

I’m working on my second book right now, and I was looking at my outline. I have the first chapter involving guns and wrist locks and then nothing like that happens for the next 7 chapters. Sure, I’m developing character but I feel I’m not living up to a promise I’m making to the reader in chapter one. In the effort of not getting into the trap of perpetual re-writing I’m going to charge ahead and finish the book anyway.

No, I can’t cut the first chapter either.
I know you were thinking it, because I’d asked myself the question. The truth is, the first chapter has plot elements that involve the whole thing. So, I have to keep it and I have yet to find a way to throw in superfluous action in a way that doesn’t make it seem like this is an action oriented story, which it is supposed to be, I’m just spending time developing character because I feel that’s more important right now.

So back to my point; I told my friend “The movie doesn’t have pacing problems. It was written by Joss Whedon, which means it’s supposed to sag in the middle.” I’m pretty sure Joss sat back and did the same thing I did, then decided he didn’t need to rely on arbitrary action scenes just to punch up the interesting parts.

Then again the person making that comment does have a brain the runs faster than most super computers, so it’s possible the movie isn’t even that slow his brain is just processing too fast. Kind of like when Tom Welling looks around and sees people falling in slow motion because he’s using his super speed, which I imagine is a power he’d have to turn on and off. Otherwise he wouldn’t be surprised by things and the world would be sooooo booorrring. American Idol is already bad enough in real time, I can’t imagine having to watch that rain wreck it in slow motion.

So, if you live under a rock there is the movie out call “The Avengers” that was written and directed by Joss Whedon which means Marvel finally realized that all good comic movies come from good screen writers while all bad comic movies come from Mark Steven Johnson. Oh, wait, that’s an opinion and this post is about facts.

Fact is, Samuel L. Jackson lashed out at an NYT Film Critic for giving a less than stellar review of the movie. You can read the full thing here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/samuel-l-jackson-avengers_n_1475237.html

I’m actually going to tell you NOT to read the review done my A.O. Scott unless you’ve seen the movie which leads me to agree with Samuel L. Jackson even though I haven’t seen the movie yet.

A movie review should be an evaluation of expectations, not just an opinion piece. I know this because I went to college, so if you assume this is something A. O. Scott isn’t aware of then you have to assume he didn’t go to college or take any kind of Composition classes. That aside no good reviewer should include spoilers regarding specific moments in the film. Already I know who’s going to end up fighting who and I’m pretty sure he’d hinted at what the climax of the movie is supposed to be. In addition comments like:

The secret of “The Avengers” is that it is a snappy little dialogue comedy dressed up as something else, that something else being a giant A.T.M. for Marvel and its new studio overlords, the Walt Disney Company.

What does this comment have to do with the expected quality of the movie? Nothing. The fact is, A. O. Scott’s “review” of the movie is not a review but a spoiler filed opinion piece on comic book moves in general. For this reason, and not the soon-to-be-unpopular review, A. O. Scott’s role in his department should be in question.

The reality I’m painting is a future where the “movie reviewer” is not someone who truly gives a critical evaluation of anything. They try to make themselves sound smarter than they are through opinions and social commentary that only serve to be self-ego-fluff replace any hope of telling potential viewers if a movie was worth spending money on. As it is now, I can’t claim I liked the game Dragon Age II since most game reviews “This game sucks really, really, really bad.” but never really say why except to say it’s nothing like the first game.

A true review of Dragon Age II? Put my money where my mouth is? Don’t mind if I do…

Dragon Age II is the sequel to Dragon Age: Origin, but it can almost be considered a stand alone game. The graphics are dramatically improved from the first game and the combat is much more action oriented. Changes to the game play are so changed, in fact, that I can’t continue to compare an apple to an orange. Even the story, if your’e familiar with the first game, seems to take place along side the first game giving it more of a “spin off” feel.

Dragon Age II starts with a non-linear story format being told from a third party kind of like Diablo II with scenes that jump back to people discussing how the events played out. The story was well paced and I found myself focusing on the cut scenes that separated the clear Three Act structure. As with all BioWare games the characters are well written, NPC dialog is great and I often picked my adventure party just based on who I wanted to listen to the banter of. The story builds on itself with unavoidable tragedies thrust upon the main character for impact. While many players may not like the idea that certain NPCs are railroaded to pre-determined destinies the events do fuel the story and you still control the main character’s reaction to such events. Will you be a blood thirsty force of vengeance or a zen like voice of reason? While no choices seem to truly allow that level of contrast the concept is still the same.

In the original Dragon Age: Origin the locations were vast and detailed. You could, literally, get lost exploring just one of many different areas. Dragon Age II, however, limits both the size and number of locations. In fact, you’re going to end up seeing the same locations over and over. Often a dungeon is nothing more than a re-decorated set piece seen three adventures ago, but each zone can be cleared quickly so it’s not like you’ll be there for several hour exploring. Exploration itself seems to take a back seat to story progression. This isn’t a game where you’re meant to get lost in the forest in hopes of finding some hidden lair containing an epic weapon. Most of your cool weapons will probably be found in a shop, which make a little more sense than under a rock in a spider’s lair. The story is clearly the focus of the this game, with side quests being less about the loot and more about additional character interaction.

Dragon Age II, for me, also feels more like a casual game with it’s focus on stories. Since most dungeons are small and the enemies can be cleared in a matter of minutes I find myself playing in short bursts. I don’t feel the need to sit at the console for several hours just to get a sense of closure. While I could power through quest after quest all afternoon, I find waking up 20 minutes early and getting in play time before work is as equally rewarding as playing for 2 straight hours at night. Often I would find myself focus on just the romance plot line with more apprehension than I was the fate of an entire group or order. Other times I would sit and ponder my decisions feeling the weight of my game world sitting on my shoulders.  Still, all this could be put aside at a moments notice thanks to the games many “What to do now” moments. Many games can pull you through a story relentlessly causing you to choose between sleep and forward progress, but this isn’t one of them.

Overall Dragon Age II is a game aimed for more casual players who don’t feel the need to vanquish every known monster in hopes of finding every magical dagger hidden in an immense game world. It probably won’t appeal to the hard core gamer who keeps a stash of gear with specific stats for facing certain monsters or players who want to spend hours in a game just wandering the beautifully created country side. It is a good game for those with busy lives and very little time to dedicate to a game in one sitting, or people are just new to console RPGs and don’t want to get too bogged down with vast set pieces or reading the stats of every shirt they find on an undead knight to make sure they aren’t passing over an upgrade to their Torn Jerkin +2. In a way the fact that both Dragon Age games sit side by side in story, only reflects the nature of gamers and games who often sit side by side themselves; The casual and the hard core.

It’s time like these when I wish I had a staff of people, or minions. No, just the minions. If I had minions I wouldn’t have to go out and buy my own Coke Zero I could just send the minion. I find it interesting that Superheroes get side kicks and Supervillian’s get minions and yet I know for a fact I wouldn’t work well with a side kick. A side kick would be telling me I’ve digressed from the point of this post right about now and trying to give me creative criticism! Then he’d put on a pair of pants name himself something cool like “Nightwing” and then end up with his own playable avatar in my video game sequel!

Well not today Mr. Grayson!

Yes, clearly I need sleep. Which was the original point of this blog. Normally I’m not one who sleeps much, but I seem to operate on very little sleep. I’m up by 7am every morning – yes, that includes morning when I went to bed at 6:30. There is just something about 7am that my body forces me out of bed under the intention of doing something productive. Most of the times I’d wake at 5:30 or 6, but I’ve been know to sleep in until 7:30 on rare occasions.

I’ve never understood the idea of a nap. I have a brain that starts feeding me ideas of things to do every morning. I wake up with thoughts I have to execute so I drag myself out of bed to either write, read or continue the video game level I was stuck on. Notice I didn’t mention going to work? That’s because I actually do all of these things BEFORE going to work – yes, I’m up that early.

A nap is an alien concept to me. A nap is like desert between the appetizer and the meal, or at least it was. I finally decided to look into what a “power nap” was supposed to be and found out it is a 15 minute restart of the brain that has been linked to improved creativity and memory.

What? You mean I could have improving these two things this whole time? I’ve been trying to power through a series of writer’s blocks for over a month. Why didn’t someone tell me I could make more progress in 15 minutes of sleep than I could in months of reading tips and writing challenges? This is exactly why I need a minion… well this and to get me more Coke Zero.

What was I talking about?

The following is a short story written for one of the players of my Shadowrun game. I haven’t been writing as much as I feel I should and when the muse hit me with the idea for this story I did it more as an exercise than anything else. It’s a story with no real beginning or ending – that’s kind of intentional. Sorry.

So this is how it ends. That’s what Riggs was thinking as he lay, pinned, under burning car. A car that had been blown up by one of his own crew. No, it wasn’t a Mafia hit team. It wasn’t a Yakuza fixer finding out Riggs was an ork, and it wasn’t even a member of someone’s family. It was the guy in the back seat of the car deciding there was no harm in throwing a disarmed bomb out the window of a car driving down the freeway.

There was almost some solace in knowing he was going to die. After all the things Riggs had been through, all the brushes with death, and having Johnny’s back even when he suspected the man was guilty of the things he was being accused of. For all these things and more, Riggs was finally going to die. And as irony would have it, he was vaguely aware that Johnny was running from the destroyed vehicle, thus leaving him to die. It seemed after everything that had happened, Johnny got to live through both the explosion and the car wreck. Karma’s a Bitch. Riggs thought, as he lay back and thoughts about the sweet final sleep that was coming for him… but then there were sirens!

It had been nearly three days of laying in the hospital bed before Riggs realized his DocWagon contract had been paid up for the year. He’d continued to slip in and out of consciousness, the cycle matching the ebb and flow of his own thoughts. Just when he’d relax enough to rest the paranoia would kick in and snap him to alertness. He’d then stay hypersensitive until fatigue set in and forced him towards a state of relaxation again. Riggs didn’t know how long each phase lasted anymore but every time he awoke was a welcome reminder that he hadn’t been killed. It’s not over after all.

Snake’s voice spoke to him through a dream. “Everything’s looking good Mr. Galvan.” The name used wasn’t familiar so Riggs opened his eyes and looked at the doctor in the white coat clearly pretending to make notes on a datapad. The face was different and at first Riggs was confused but the doctor spoke again and it all made sense as Snake’s voice said “I’ve put your bag in that chair. I know you were you looking for your comm earlier. I just wanted you to know it was safe.”

Riggs didn’t have a bag with him in the crash. He wasn’t even supposed to be in the city, but all of his resources were back in Texas making an extraction on his own impossible. It was mostly blind luck that his DocWagon monitor was subdermal, notifying the local paramedics that a contract holder was in critical condition. This job was supposed to be a simple milk run. Just an hour of work and round trip to Seattle.

“New face…” The patient now named Galvan managed to choke out.

The doctor smiled, “In our line of work you’re almost required to change it up when jobs start to-”

“No.” Galvan coughed, “My new face.”

The doctor nodded in understanding and glanced over his shoulder to see a nurse in the hall. She walked by so the doctor turned back to Mr. Galvan. “I’ll make some calls.” He reached out and pressed a credit chip into Galvan’s hand. Past the fake flesh covering the knuckles of the doctor’s left hand Mr. Galvan felt the hard cybernetic hand hidden beneath.

“Thanks…” Galvan muttered.

“Don’t thank me until you see the bill.” The doctor smile as he pulled away. “Now, I should go before this doctor’s coat walks into the same building twice.” He gestured to the lapel, probably where the cloned RFID tag was stored. Then again Snake might have stopped by a dry cleaners on the way to the hospital just as easily. Sometimes the simple solutions were far more effective.

As the fake doctor left the man named Mr. Galvan allowed himself to truly relax for the first time since the explosion on the freeway. The man in that car, Riggs, was officially dead now. Once Galvan got rid of Rigg’s face there would be nothing left to link him to that life anymore. It was like being reincarnated but, karam was still a bitch.

I won’t go into spoilers, even if it is more than a month later, but some people are so outraged over the ending of Mass Effect 3 that that are demanding a completely new ending from BioWare by even go so far as to file grievances with the Better Business Bureau. Personally, I didn’t love the ending but I also didn’t feel that the last 10 minutes of my 90 hour journey (when I total up all my same games for just 1 play through of the Mass Effect Trilogy) ruins the entire thing for me either. Regardless of this fact, people seem to be missing the forest for the trees in that an audience feels entitled to make demands on a production company.

Fact is, we see this type of argument all the time. People were upset with the creative direction taken with Superman Returns, they didn’t like the glaring plot holes in Terminator: Salvation, they hated the high level of cheese factor for the Fantastic Four, and we all know the Resident Evil movies have almost nothing to do with the video games. Truth is, I agree with these opinions too but I’m not about to ask – nay, demand Hollywood re-do them just because they didn’t live up to my expectations. Honestly, at this point I don’t care about Resident Evil as an extension of the video games but more as a reason to see Milla Jovovich kick some ass… but I digress.

In recent articles Forbes magazine has helped promote a sense of entitlement that fans have as consumers. I find this interesting since 90% of all companies aren’t about giving you what you want so much as convincing you to buy something you don’t need in the first place. Still, they seem to be fueling this fire which might only burn us in the long run. When a company stops buying a product they producers usually take note and make alterations to increase sales, but if I don’t like the new taste of Coca-Cola I shouldn’t feel entitled to threaten the company with legal action until the change it. Like wise, as much as I hated Daredevil and will go to my grave saying that movie killed my favorite superhero of all time, I didn’t feel the need to demand that Marvel have the movie remade with a Joss Whedon script and Alan Tudyk in the lead role.

Admit, that version of Daredevil would have been epicly awesome!

So where do we draw the line? On the one hand you’re making a product that you hope has a wider appeal so you want some feedback from fans but at the same time you want to express your own creative vision. Anyone who’s ever watched a few episodes of a reality TV show like American Idol or The Voice can see how a system can break down when the masses are allowed to dictate a creative direction. How many times has someone you couldn’t stand been voted ahead and what would happen if people got to start voting on how movies are made. I’m still not sure why they keep making Transformers movies, but if people are going to be allowed to bully production companies into making movie then we have to be willing to embrace a world where people get to force a new movie to come out with Katy Perry plays Zooey Deschanel’s evil twin in a musical-movie remake of  Double Trouble (oh yes, I went there!). It would also include Justin Bieber and be directed by Phyllida Llyod.

When viewed this way, the process of story-telling isn’t about telling a story anymore. It’s about taking the most popular elements or most powerful opinions and reshaping your story to fit that criteria. Story-telling would become story-taking in that you’re taking feed back and elements from the “fans” to give them what they want. Then again, there have been times I’ve ordered from a restaurant and then saw food someone else was eating. It looked a lot better than what I had, but at the same time I did get exactly what I ordered.